1. Field of the Disclosure
Embodiments of the disclosure relate in general to the field of computers and similar technologies, and in particular to software utilized in this field. Still more particularly, it provides a system, method, and computer-usable medium for the concurrent display of information between devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
The processing capabilities of many of today's mobile devices, coupled with ubiquitous wireless access to the Internet, have moved mobile access to information into the mainstream of everyday life. Many of these devices provide a rich user interface (UI) and a simplified Web browser, and it is now common to see consumers using hand-held devices to get a weather forecast, check the latest news, make a purchase, or even conduct financial transactions of all kinds. However, despite constant design improvements in mobile devices, their user interfaces, and the applications they support, there is an ongoing need for end-user support.
Due in part to these very same improvements, customer service representatives (CSRs) and technical support personnel may encounter new difficulties in providing assistance to mobile device users. In particular, there are situations where a CSR is not able to “co-browse” with a user and simultaneously comment on what the user is viewing on their mobile device. While co-browsing has become commonplace to support end users of personal computers, multiple challenges have prevented its implementation on mobile devices.
For example, the mobile device may be using a wireless data communication protocol, such as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE), or Third Generation (3G), which requires translation to the Internet Protocol (IP) used by the Internet. While these wireless protocols support such translation, they use a network addressing scheme that is different from IP addresses. As a result, support for address translation and mapping is required. Another challenge is simultaneously supporting the wide variety of proprietary Web browsers used by mobile devices, which include JB5 (Symbian), Safari, Nokia, Opera, and others. Furthermore, determining which of these browsers is implemented on a mobile device, and then replicating it within another Web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox on a CSR's system creates additional complexities. Yet another challenge is the fact that mobile devices are typically used while the user is in transit. As a result, a communication session is typically transitioned from one wireless access point to another during the course of the session. These transitions require the provision of a session identifier to maintain a co-browsing session. In addition, if the wireless connection is lost, there needs to be some way of identifying the mobile device user when they re-establish communication and regaining the state of the co-browsing session when it was interrupted.